Old Ways

Neil Young had toyed with country music since the beginning of his career, and both Harvest and Comes A Time made extensive use of Nashville’s studios and session players, but Old Ways is Young’s first full-blooded country album. With the participation of heroes like Willie Nelson (who appears on “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?”) and Waylon Jennings (who appears on “Old Ways”), these songs comprise an unironic tribute to the music of mainstream Nashville, although given Young’s contrarian streak it’s hard to take anything he does at face value. Some longtime fans might find perplexing the mix of oldies covers (“The Wayward Wind”), shameless sentimentality (“My Boy”), and portentous theater (“Misfits,” a bizarre take on the orchestral melodrama of Roy Orbison and Waylon Jennings), but this combination is no different than what you’d find on any classic Waylon album. In any case, longtime fans will recognize Young’s songwriting trademarks underneath the Nashville threads. And for the C&W diehards, “Once an Angel” and “Where Is the Highway Tonight?” are two originals that display the forlorn grace of vintage Ray Price.